created by Kristin Prevallet

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One for the Spirits: Automatic Writing Baffles Researchers

Neuroimaging During Trance StateAs a writer, hypnotherapist, and teacher of automatic writing imagine my delight in finding the recently published collaborative study, “Neuroimaging during Trance State: A Contribution to the Study of Disassociation.”

Traditionally, the mysterious and often unreadable scrawl that occurs during automatic writing is thought to be the work of spirits communicating through the writing hand of a medium. And if the medium continues the practice of automatic writing every day for a period of time, often coherent sentences and concepts will begin to emerge – usually beyond the conscious scope of the writer.

Whether you believe that automatic writing is the manifestation of spirits or the unconscious mind of the writer tapping into some larger source, there is no doubt but that the process is mysterious.

And this study articulates what indeed does seem a part of the ether into which the unknown blows:

The parts of the brain that are active during “normal” writing states are quiet when an experienced automatic writer (medium) is at work.

Which means that Automatic Writing is not actually “writing.” So what is it?

Amazingly, this study expands that time-old question:

What is the connection between the mysteries of consciousness and the grey, mushy, matter that sits between our ears?

I’m in the midst of writing a longer piece about this, but in the meantime why not try it out for yourself?

Download (for $2.99) my 23 minute hypnotic sound-scape for Automatic Writing (produced in collaboration with Ambrose Bye). And then email me your answer to this question:

What do you think happens when you practice automatic writing (or not-writing)?

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Three Reasons to Jumpstart your New Year’s Resolutions Now

Have you ever made the conscious decision to change something about your life or health, and then said to yourself: “I’ll do that AFTER I get through this stressful time in my life.”

Only to find that stress never really passes – or if it does, you no longer feel the same urgency or commitment to make the change?

Until, as poet John Ashbery writes in the poem “Varient”

“the whole thing overflows like a silver
Wedding cake or Christmas tree, in a cascade of tears.”

Here are three good reasons to cascade the change you want to make in your life not into tears, but into a path that has already begun to form, one day at a time.

1. New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work…

…unless, of course, you have a steel resolve and the unflinching willpower to maintain your initial burst of enthusiasm. What does work is to set realistic goals and take small steps on a daily basis towards those making those goals a reality. So if you start now, by the time the new year rolls around you’ll be on the right track.

Laying down the seeds to get yourself started might not be as hard as you think.

For example, if weight loss is your goal, what if you made the commitment now to eat 1/2 your usual plate of Thanksgiving dinner (and every meal thereafter) savoring every bite? If you’re trying to stop smoking, how about spending the month of December smoking 1/3 fewer cigarettes, becoming more aware of your cravings and drinking a glass of water instead of smoking?

Whatever your goal may be, chunk it down to what is possible and commit to that. It will be easier to achieve.

2. 12/21/2012

Its no longer prophesied to be the end of the world (whatever that even means considering the millions of lives have been uprooted or destroyed by wars and environmental disasters).

But this day is symbolic of the shift from a culture of rampant individualism to a culture of collective, multi-dimensional thinking. This is a shift of creativity in which large groups of people get together and turn their efforts outward towards “we, in common” as opposed to “I, alone.”

We’re all riding the wave of this shift – so whatever commitment you can make to improve your life will resonate with others who are feeling a similar urgency. Go for it. You’re not alone.

3. Holidays may compound stress, but procrastination makes it even worse.

A new year is a reminder of how time flies - Tempus fugit. Whatever it is that you’ve been meaning to can drag your energy down, making it a lot harder to commit to larger changes. So find six hours between now and the end of December and do what you need to do to get that “to do” list in motion.

If it’s something big – like writing a dissertation or starting a new business – then separate the forest into trees, and the trees into branches. Make the job smaller, and once you’ve got it started keep taking small steps until you’re on a roll.

Happy new year – every day, starting now.

P.S. If you’re worried about self-sabatoge, check out IQ Matrix’s cool mind map and tips for overcoming your worst inclinations.

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Sleep! (Or not)

 

In 1960 the poet Robert Duncan published a book of poetry called “The Opening of the Field” and when I work with clients who find sleeping difficult, I find myself returning again and again to these words:

Often I am permitted to return to a meadow
as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,
that is not mine, but is a made place…

created by light
wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall.

I find that when people have trouble sleeping it’s because they are paying way too much attention to themselves trying to fall asleep.

People will say: “I lay in bed, tossing and turning, thinking to myself I need to sleep! I am so tired! But then all sorts of thoughts start racing through my mind and then I’m up for hours.”

There are plenty of external reasons why sleeping can be difficult: noise, an uncomfortable bed, physical pain, and chocolate are a few that come to mind.

But in spite of all these diversions and distractions, there is a way you can get to sleep by opening the field – and to believe that you can find that “scene made up by the mind that is not mine” it’s useful to “not” think about it. How?

Well, if you’re “not” sleeping, it’s because you have a memory of what it feels like to sleep and you know that what you’re doing now (tossing and turning) is “not” that.

And it’s useful to know that whatever you’re doing that is “not” working means that you can do the opposite by asking yourself a few simple questions:

What’s everything else that I’m not thinking about while I lay here not sleeping?

What’s everything else that I’m not hearing while I lay here not sleeping?

What’s everything else that I’m not feeling in my body while I lay here not sleeping?

It’s possible that as you imagine everything else that you’re not thinking about right now that you’ll notice your body take a deep breath.

A breath that feels a little more like sleeping. And that’s a thought you can follow into the shadows where forms fall– forms of dreams, or your body finally resting.

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MindBody Integrative Studies

It’s not “just” a placebo…

…it’s your human ability to use your mind to trigger biochemical changes in your body, and your body to trigger thoughts in your mind (for better or for worse.)

I’ve been following the rise of placebo research coverage by mainstream news sources, and reader comments are always heated. People who have been taking medications for many years get very upset about  placebo coverage — a good example are the comments posted after this CBS interview between Lesley Stahl and Irving Kirsch (author of the controversial book The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth).

Personally, I don’t think that the placebo effect needs to be presented as some ultimate anti-thesis to prescription medication. If the drugs work, they work. Rather, I think the mental strategies that harness the placebo effect need to be taught as fundamental skills, as crucial to a person’s survival as looking both ways before crossing the street.

So, I wrote a book about how the mindbody connection works and how you can develop your awareness of it in order to survive. The placebo effect isn’t only a sugar pill or some kind of trick. I prefer to think of it more like a regimen of thought experiments that you can feel having an effect in your body.

The book is called “You, Resourceful: Return to Who You Want To Be.”

For a limited time you can get it directly from me and pay only $5.99 (plus $1.75 S&H) through Pay Pal.

And if you can post your comments to the book’s Amazon.com page, that would be terrific.

As health insurance rates continue to rise and more and more people are stuck with less-than-adequate coverage, I’m hopeful that seemingly radical but ancient understandings about how our minds and our bodies work together to activate powerful internal healing resources will finally become mainstream.

Thanks for reading.

Warmly, Kristin

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Healing Metaphorically

When I teach workshops like “Move Through Emotional Blocks” I focus on connections between metaphors and the unconscious mind. This excerpt from my forthcoming e-book You, Resourceful: Book One of the Creative Rewiring Series conveys the basic idea:

You know about “breaking habits” and have probably heard that it takes 66 days for most people to be convinced that a habit is gone for good. Traumas get “released” and when we can’t “stand” it any longer, we work to “get over” people.

The words we use to describe these aspirations to “break,” “release,” and “get over” are themselves clues to how to do it. Melissa Tiers (The Anti-anxiety Toolkit) describes it as a two-step process: first transform the issue into a visual image; then use your creative mind to elaborate on the story.

For example, if you are trying to “move through a block” imagine the block as an actual object. Then figure out what you need to do to.

I see a wall and I’m breaking through it with a hammer; the pieces fly all over the place like confetti.

And what happens next?

The confetti turns into a light snow and covers the entire landscape.

And as you imangine that the rock has transformed into snow, what do you notice about the issue you were trying to “break through”?

Well, walking through a light snow is certainly easier than running into walls.

How about giving it a try? Think about about something that you would like to “get over.”

Get over, like what? Make it into an image.

Now imagine that wall, river, ocean, canyon (whatever it is) and think about what you will need to “get over” it. A rope to cross the river, a magical power to part the ocean, a hang-glider to make it across the canyon.

Then imagine yourself doing just that and notice how you can begin to get some perspective on the issue.

Butterflies in your stomach? Jello in your legs? Cotton in your mouth?

Lingering, hovering, hanging out, causing you to feel a certain way. And when you imagine those butterflies flying in formation or that jello turning into something solid, you can begin to feel better. Or at least be in a better position to channel insight and inner resources to solve an issue or glean some insight.

So, what’s happening as you take a moment to check in with your metaphors and transform them?

Like Wallace Stevens does all the time:

You like it under the trees in autumn,
Because everything is half dead.
The wind moves like a cripple among the leaves
And repeats words without meaning.

In the same way, you were happy in spring,
With the half colors of quarter-things,
The slightly brighter sky, the melting clouds,
The single bird, the obscure moon—

- from “The Motive For Metaphor“

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Guided Neuroscience: Visualizations Rewire Your Brain

I read a lot of books about the brain, and it’s exciting to see how neuroscience is substantiating what healers, hypnotists, shamans, etc. have known for the past 4000 years (give or take a few).

A good example is Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightnment (Perlmutter and Villoldo) — an interesting conversation between neuroscience and shamanic practices. I wanted to share a couple ideas from this book that I think really clarify the work we are doing with hypnotherapy and other kinds of mental healing work. The first is the idea that:

Your limbic brain (which operates by influencing the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system) cannot distinguish between a painful event that occurred 20 years ago and the memory of that event triggered by a similar situation today. This means that unless we do something to convince the brain that it doesn’t need to constantly keep referring back to that old response, we’re going to continue to experience our lives as an infuriating series of patterns and habits.

The second idea is that:

Visualizations allow you to pave the way for new neural pathways that can allow you to perceive people and situations in a new way.

So guided visualizations are rewiring those old responses by inviting your creative mind and all the images, colors, shapes, and ideas that it holds to come forward. When this happens, the normal chatter of everyday life (which often includes a lot of unproductive self-talk) eases into focused awareness, a kind of expansion of perspective that, when put into action, can lead to powerful insight and the potential for change. And your body relaxes, which allows healing to happen at both the cellular and the mental level.

So as you practice interrupting habitual thoughts with visualizations and breathing throughout the day, keep in mind that you’re doing more than just imagining yourself swimming in that ocean or walking through that amazing landscape. You’re communicating to your brain that you’re safe and in a different place in your life — so there’s no need to conjure up that old response any more.

Happy rewiring…

(Imagine your own neural pathways firing and clustering like a cascade of matches — not into a dangerous fire… 

but into a silent luminosity… )

 

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MindBody Integrative Studies

Your Mind On Data: Self Tracking

Lasercut of Upset Stomach by Laurie Frick

Two weeks ago I attended the conference in Amsterdam  of a new movement in healthcare called “Quantified Self” whose logo is  ”Self Knowledge Through Numbers.” It’s a provocative notion — that we can take control of our health care by tracking data on a daily basis, and analyzing that data over a period of time in order to make adjustments and figure out ourselves what is working, and what isn’t.

I was most interested in the  presentations around behavior modification and “mood tracking.” As a hypnotherapist,  my work  is more in keeping with healing traditions that bring unquantifiable but real awareness of unconscious and intuitive insight to behavioral change. And yet, I was struck with the possibility that data-tracking (although it might not be useful to everyone) gives people access to a similar kind of expanded awareness, although through a different channel.

I co-presented a session with my partner Richard Ryan who is obsessively tracking his insomnia with a Zeo, while at the same time using hypnotherapy and acupuncture. My question for this movement is: What makes the change? Is it the data, or the fact that tracking interrupts a habitual pattern? Or the fascinating simultaneity of the two, in rare collaboration and synergy.

Here are a few resources in case any of you are interested in experimenting with self-tracking.

I’ve been experimenting with  Moodscope and Moodjam, two sites that track fluctuations in mood over time. Moodscope allows you to  write a few sentences about what influences are contributing to a particular mood. It’s a great way to track mental strategies like self-hypnosis or EFT. Moodjam gives you a beautiful, color-coded chart. For a beautiful example of data in action, check out visual artist Laurie Frick who synthesizes art, neuroscience, and moodjam data.

The health-care system is so demoralizing, but CureTogether is a really great site that puts symptoms and diagnosis in perspective and allows you to be pro-active in relation to your own health — in part because you are able to see your condition in relation to other people who are suffering from the same set of symptoms.

If you’re interested in all this there are QS meetups all over the world where people are presenting very creative and innovative approaches to self-tracking (not all are tech-centric.)

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On Boredom and other Meaningful Things

My Zone A (flood zone) apartment in Brooklyn has a nice view of the East River, and there’s a part of me that wishes I could have stayed to watch as Hurricane Irene sent surges up and down the streets that meet the river’s shore. But this thrill-seeking urge was put into perspective when my downstairs neighbor’s ceiling collapsed and the antique store next door flooded; when I heard and read the reports of hard-hit areas upstate and in other states.

 Still, the day after the storm people in my neighborhood were complaining about how “boring” the storm was. “I was expecting so much more” said the mother of two children who I was talking to at a local playground. This got me thinking about what “boredom” means. Is the muddle of daily life really so boring that we crave catastrophe and destruction even though we know how they tear other people’s lives apart?
  
For my newsletter (my apologies if you’ve received this more than once!) I decided to reflect on a few insights from writers who have thought about boredom. (Click here and scroll down to read the article and check out the newsletter.)I hope you find the piece interesting and if you do, would be happy to hear from you. If you have any links or ideas, please send them along to trancepoetics@gmail.com

- Be safe, Kristin

   

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MindBody Integrative Studies

Pain: How to think about it

"Mynd" by Brian Lucas

I teach my clients many different techniques for managing pain, so I was intrigued to read several articles published last week about how French and Belgian hospitals are offering hypnosis to surgery patients– and they successfully performed 8000 non-anesthetic surgeries! And an article published today in abc News cites that “those who underwent hypnosis with a local anesthetic experienced a faster recovery, a shorter hospital stay fewer painkillers.”

So last week I decided to put my practice where my mouth is (literally) and used hypnosis for a dental procedure (preparing a crown impression) that normally would have required Novocaine.

I learned so much from this experience that I decided share the three tried-and-true self-hypnosis techniques that helped me during this procedure, and that can help you or someone you care about to manage pain.

(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. The techniques below are not medical advice; they are an introduction to mental strategies that might offer you a new perspective on pain.) 


1) Neutralize the fear. When we react to pain it is often with a fight or flight response — and while this may be useful for outrunning hungry tigers, it is not at all useful for pain and inevitably makes it worse.

Wherever you are, stop what you are doing and breath. Notice where exactly the pain is located in your body. Notice its movement. Now focus on how you are really feeling about this pain. You may be completely freaked out about it but is there any part of you that is calm and unafraid? Allow this part of you to speak directly to your brain saying: “I’m going to be ok. My body is still functioning. My heart is still beating, my blood is circulating, my eyes are seeing, feet walking, etc.” (Fill in whatever body parts are working for you.) As you think these thoughts, do what you need to do to pay attention to the fact that you are breathing, and feel yourself calming down.

One of the most effective ways to neutralize fear is through a technique called EFT. Learn about how to do it by reading this:
http://www.eftuniverse.com/images/pdf_files/eftquickstart.pdf

2) Lose interest in the pain and focus on something else. What happens to a mother’s migraine as she sees her child falling? It disappears, in that moment. And I’m sure you can think of times in your life when you’ve been in pain and then forgot about it, only to have the pain minimize or disappear.

If you can’t bring yourself to sweep the floor, take the dog for a walk, call a friend, or organize your plastic containers, sit down and use your mind’s eye to think about doing something that you really love to do. This could be an activity that unfolds over time like a sports activity or your favorite walk; it could be making a mental home movie of you and someone you love doing something fun or silly; it could be reviewing an intense scene from a movie that really stuck with you. If you like music, get lost in it because it will give you something else to focus on. When I was in the dentist’s office I wandered in and out of many different mental movies while listening to Matt Jones’ new album– but any music you like will work.

3) Transform the pain into a metaphor or image. If your tooth is “throbbing like a jack-hammer,” begin by imagining the jack-hammer throbbing in as much detail as you can. Then imagine the image that will feel better now. Maybe you’ll turn the hammer in to a soft mist, or a waterfall; maybe you’ll imagine a cool cloth surrounding the area with comfort. Imagine whatever you see, hear, or feel as vividly as you can. And then imagine how great it will be when that pain is gone for good.

(This post is an introduction to techniques I have learned and implemented in both my life and in my work with clients. For more information on these techniques read Melissa Tiers’  book Integrative Hypnosis (available from Amazon) and Dr John Sarno’s book”The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mind-body Disorders” which you can order from your local bookstore.)

Related articles

Hypnosis Before Surgery? Studies Say Yes (abcnews.go.com)
Interesting article on The Gate Control Theory of Chronic Pain
Article about pain control with meditation published in the Wall Street Journal

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What is hypnotherapy?


What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is therapeutic hypnosis; Hypnosis has been used for a variety of purposes by shamans, visionaries, and mystics for many centuries; when applied therapeutically it allows you to gain perspective and insight into any underlying emotional reactions that are negatively affecting your life.

During a session of hypnotherapy, your body is relaxed and your mind is fully awake. Whatever it is you are experiencing, imagine what will happen when you approach it with a heightened state of consciousness that allows you to be exceptionally alert, focused and, at the same time, very relaxed. When you enter this state of mind (a very normal state of consciousness that you certainly have accessed at many points in your life), you are open to offering and receiving suggestions for changes that will give you the insight and reflection you need to change what needs to be changed in your life.

Under hypnosis you will never do anything that you don’t want to do. Instead you will be able to overcome mental blocks and emotional obstacles so that you can notice your reactions to emotional triggers, strengthen what you already do well, and maximize the choices available to you in your life.

A hypnotherapist is not an analyst. My job is to work with you to reveal your unconscious strategies, patterns, and maps of the world so that you can make the decision to think and act differently in any situation that is causing you physical pain or mental anguish. Think of it as slowly allowing water in a dam to find new rivulets; or an antenna finding a new signal. As you go about your day, you reinforce these new paths and frequencies, giving you the inner drive you need to reach your goal, or change what you want to change.

Possible Outcomes

It’s possible that with hypnotherapy you will notice that issues you have dealt with for many years – in some cases, the majority of your life – are finally resolved. And clients who have experienced this have reported fundamental effects on their life including:

  • Release from long-held emotional or mental blocks
  • Seeing a path to get out of difficulty
  • Greater relaxation and peace of mind
  • Tangible reduction of stress
  • Living to a more meaningful potential
  • Finding new meaning in relationships
  • Alleviation of physical symptoms
  • Higher self-esteem, confidence, self worth, and sense of purpose
  • Insight into addictions and power to deal with withdrawal symptoms
  • Noticeable results in personal growth and self-improvement

My Approach

I don’t think that all pain and suffering is in your mind because the the world is very stressful place for most people. But I do think that your mind is what we need to change in order to help you get through it. I operate under the premise that you are the healer of yourself, and answers to your troubles are found within you. My role is to employ safe, effective hypnotherapy techniques designed to bring these answers to the surface. I act as a facilitator so that you will leave my office with numerous mental strategies that you can use in your daily life.

I believe in a customized approach that treats each client individually and according to his or her specific needs. During your first 1.5 hour consultation I’ll perform a thorough analysis to uncover relevant information about your health and life history, and we will begin a method of change work that suits your particular case. I continuously evaluate as I go, making changes as needed to maximize the benefits of this hypnotherapy for you.

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Feature Post, MindBody Integrative Studies

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